Does Latest Sugar Offer Same Level of Customization as Self-Hosted Community Edition?

We are using a highly customized SugarCRM Community Edition system and longing for a CRM with a more updated interface. However we like to be able to make "deep" modifications and the hook system in Suite/Sugar serves that purpose well. Most cloud-based CRMs offer less customization capability (let's call them "non-code level" customizations) such as adding custom fields or workflows. We need a lot more control than that. Preferably we want direct access to our CRM database so other software we develop can access the CRM data without having to go through an API (we will use an API though if absolutely necessary).

Is the latest Sugar really the next best alternative if we want to take it to "the next level" so to speak or does it still have wither (a) a comparatively outdated interface (inefficient use of screen real estate on large (32") FullHD monitors), and/or (b) more limited customization than a self-hosted, community edition solution?

Are there other solutions worth looking at that we can have "code-level" customization capabilities (or something very close)? We would still consider self-hosting, if that's really the only option, but prefer to move to the cloud and let someone else manage the server and core code updates.

We have been using Sugar since 2011 and moved from Sugar v6.x to Sugar v7 and up from there.

I can tell you that the level of customizations possible in v7.x and higher is far better than v6.x, the question has become *should you* do something rather can *can you* do something.

As for the interface, you have a lot of added flexibility with multi-column views (in code). Different panels in a view can be set up to have a different number of columns to help you make the front end streamlined. Drawers help navigation, as you don't leave the page to create a related record. You can create custom layouts as well as custom views. If you want, you can modify the theme, you can manipulate field labels' and values' background color, font size, and more to build a UI that works for your team.

Version 7.x and up have inline editing, list view edits, list view previews, an intelligence pane where you can pull in related data for ease of display and so much more.... Subpanel edits are also included, as are subpanel searches and you can easily add custom actions to views, subpanels as well as individual subpanel records... PDFs are so much easier to deal with, Quotes are completely revamped and improved and can be easily customized, I could go on forever...

The v8 theme is very clean and uncluttered, watch Clint Oram's presentation of v8 here to learn about some of the latest features and see the new "look and feel":